Journalist – Historian – Speaker
Over the last month, I’ve been tracking a collection of lawsuits applying disability civil rights laws to mask mandates, specifically to overturn BANS on mask mandates as violating IDEA, ADA, and Section 504 in various ways. The differences matter for many reasons, but in part because IDEA has an “exhaustion” rule intended to preclude disabled …
Lawsuits work. Failure to provide accessible technologies for learners with disabilities can have serious consequences for universities. Many institutions have been sued in recent years for noncompliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act, ratcheting up pressure around accessibility issues. As a result, some universities are thinking about how they might work together to test the …
Yesterday I wrote on the Endrew F. v Douglas County decision from the Supreme Court. It’s powerful and could make a real difference in special education in this country. In the meantime, though, even as the decision was being handed down, ADAPT (a direct action disability rights group) was occupying the Capitol Rotunda, chanting, and …
Berkeley is claiming that they have to remove a lot of online videos because captioning them all would be too expensive. To which I say: Please build accessibility into everything you do. Deaf people, in fact, have the right to learn. And please don’t blame disabled people when your lack of foresight means you’re in …
“Only hotel guests can use the accessible door.” Logo of the ADA 25: 1990-2015. From http://www.adalegacy.com/ It’s 11 at night on the 25th anniversary of the ADA and the four of us have just arrived at the W Washington hotel. They have a spectacular bar on the rooftop with a view looking out over the White …
In Fresno County Jail, in California, a for-profit prison doctor is accused of taking away an inmate’s wheelchair as retaliation for complaints. The details are not proven, but here’s the story (via TPM): Daniel Trebas hasn’t had an easy time in the Fresno County jail. The convicted sex offender has served his punishment, plus about …
Oral arguments for Sheehan vs San Francisco will begin at the Supreme Court in a few hours (it’s the second case of the day). It will provide the opportunity for the court to do a number of things. Here are the questions before the court: Whether Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act requires …